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Lisa just loves the greenmarket on Cortelyou Road. Every Sunday she returns with a report about how it has grown, or how busy it is. She presents the week’s trophy fruit or vegetable. This week Lisa said she’d purchased the most gorgeous fish. She called it a striper. I smirked. Nobody sells whole stripers at the greenmarket. Hours passed. Lisa worked intensely cleaning up after the painters. Howard Hall was more in the weeds than usual. The playroom ceiling had been replaced.
I did nothing. Worse than nothing, I played SPORE for the entire afternoon (I’d ordered the game when it first came out, but was only now trying it out. It’s completely absorbing).
The sun set. The kids argued. “So are you gonna cook this fish, or what?” demanded Lisa.
“Me?” shaking free from the care and feeding of my gayly painted two-legged carnivore with antlers, long, bony hands for grasping and nasty biting teeth. “I’m cooking the fish?”
“It’s too big for me to cook. And its got scales.”
“What is it?”
“I told you, a striper.”
“A bass? You mean a ‘sea bass.'”
“A striped bass.”
“Like this?” I asked, holding my hands seven inches apart.
“Much bigger.”
I held my hands nine inches apart. Lisa shook her head.
“A legal striped bass is 28 inches minimum.”
“At least.” Lisa nodded her head.
You bought a wild bass at the greenmarket? Not scaled? Is it gutted?”
“Nope,” said Lisa losing patience with my condescending questions. “The lady said it wasn’t hard to do.”
“It’s not, if you’ve done it a hundred times, but it’s always messy as hell.”
“Forget it!” Lisa stormed. “I thought it’d be fun. I’ll just throw it away. We’ll just have chicken fingers.”
“Throw it AWAY? A striper? Shit.”
“Forget it. You don’t have to do anything. I will. Just tell me how.”
“Tell you how?”
No problem, I taunted, all you need to do is remove the fins, scrape every single last scale of four square feet of fish skin, cut it from its gills to its anus and tug free a couple-three handfuls of icy cold fish guts. Oh, and then clean the god forsaken mess up before even turning on the stove. All at 6:30 on a Sunday. With that I stormed into the garage, found a ten-penny nail and a framing hammer, grabbed the fish (sure enough it had the tin tag looped from gob to gill vent) from on top of the cooler.
“Nice fish,” I said, impressed.
“I told you,” said Lisa.
I nailed the fish’s tail to the fence, turned to Lisa who was cold, and heading back inside. “No way. If I’m going to process this fish in the dark, you’re holding the flashlight.”
After some to-do I recovered two respectable fillets. After pawning off the guts and carcass on the chickens, I picked what remained of the broad leaves from the spindly fig tree and washed my hands and the leaves thoroughly. I sliced the fillets into single-serving pieces and then placed alternating layers–fig leaves, seasoned fish, olive oil–until the baking dish was full. The fish baked at a high heat to draw out the flavor and aroma from the fig leaves. I served it all with baked spaghetti squash seasoned with Chinese Five Spice (fennel, cloves, and cinnamon, star anise and Szechuan peppercorns) and steamed broccoli. (7 servings in 50 minutes, not including fish processing)

The Slim Jim was created by Adolph Levis in Philadelphia in the 1940’s. After an unsuccessful early career as a violinist and a failed effort to operate a string of tobacco shops, Levis and a partner had turned to the pickled-food trade, hawking pig’s feet, cabbage and cucumbers to bars and taverns in and around Philadelphia.

mysterious meat snack

Pepperoni, he noticed, was becoming popular among his clientele, and he made an end run around the fad by creating a preserved meat product that, rather than curing for weeks, could be manufactured in a matter of days by a process of fermentation and hot smoking.

The snack sold well in the bars, first in Philadelphia and then up and down the East Coast. Eventually, a bidding war broke out over Slim Jim’s name and recipe, and in 1967, Levis (pronounced LEV-iss) and his partner sold out to General Mills, for $20 million. The brand would pass through three other companies in the ensuing years, and each time it did, the recipe changed a little, to make production cheaper and more efficient. They even started putting chicken into the original all-beef formula. What at first required just 10 common ingredients now calls for 31. But the taste, everyone agrees, remains true to Levis’s original.

The sale of anything, even a stick of dried meat, to a company like General Mills pretty much assures that the instructions for making it become an industrial secret. So when we decided to make a Levis-era Slim Jim, as a salute to its inventor who died this year, we got no help from its current owner, ConAgra. They wished us luck and sent us on our way.

Undeterred, we went to Harvey Brodsky, Levis’s son-in-law, who told us he didn’t know the original recipe. ”It’s not like we’ve got it written down in family scrapbooks,” he said good-naturedly. He supplied one critical clue, however: the use of lactic acid is crucial in the fermentation process because it lowers the pH and imparts a unique tanginess.

We realized that we would have to go freelance, and so our next stop was Wade Moises, the sous-chef and butcher at Lupa restaurant in New York. He is that rare breed, a sausage geek, and he was certain that he could help us reverse-engineer a Slim Jim.

Though he did have some reservations. Before settling down to work, he snapped off a piece of a Slim Jim, chewed it and winced. ”You sure you want to do this?”

From Bruce Aidells, the man who restored the good name of mass-produced sausage in America, we learned that Levis’s original recipe was probably based on an Eastern European thin rope sausage, usually made with pork and beef, because ”its spices are mild and it takes the smoke well.”

A recipe for rope sausage, provided by Aidells, has 10 ingredients (not counting the meat and the fat), like the original Slim Jim. The heat comes from white and black pepper; Moises suggested using cayenne instead and doubling the salt. ”The meat-to-fat ratio is very important and so is the amount of lactic acid,” he says, dropping pieces of top round chuck and beef fat into a meat grinder. ”After that, it’s a question of adjusting the spices.”

Making sausage is really quite straightforward. The meat is ground, then kneaded together with spices, lactic-acid starter (freeze-dried milk, essentially) and a pink curing salt. The meat-and-spice mixture has to be kneaded until it is doughy and can be squeezed through the sausage press and into the sheathing. Slim Jims are now cased in collagen, but we figure that the originals were natural. So we go with lamb intestines,which are properly narrow.

A sausage maker close to the Slim Jim production process, speaking on the condition of anonymity, revealed to us that a Slim Jim is smoked at between 110 and 140 degrees for 22 hours and then allowed to cool at 50 degrees with next to no humidity. So that’s what we do.

After tasting the first batch, we decide it needs an additional two tablespoons of salt and eight more ounces of fat to make it into Slim Jim territory. By the third generation, we think we have something close, so we let it dry overnight in a refrigerator and then

smoke it. ”I think we got it,” says Moises, looking up from his prep work on the fifth day of our project. ”It could be a bit greasier, but the spice and the tanginess is there.”

We send a package of our homemade Slim Jims overnight to Brodsky. He is defensive and not at all complimentary. ”The samples are way off,” he says in a voice-mail message. ”The color is wrong, the chop is wrong, the consistency of the casing is wrong. The spicing just doesn’t seem to be there, and the lactic-acid starter culture? Didn’t taste any.”

We decide not to take his word for it, and as his father-in-law might have done, we head out to a local tavern. At Montero’s, hard by the Brooklyn docks, a regular sits at the bar. ”You made your own Slim Jim?” he says, as if he has heard this one already too. When I ask if he’d try one and tell me if it tastes like the Slim Jims of old, he wrinkles up his face and says, ”Why not?”

He chews for a moment, then shrugs. ”Sure,” he says. ”You made a Slim Jim. Good for you.”

Wade Moises’s Take on

The Original Slim Jim

(Adapted ffom Bruce Aidells)

1 lamb intestine casing (4 feet long)

2 1/2 pounds top round chuck, cubed

1 pound beef fat, cubed

3 tablespoons paprika

2 teaspoons black pepper

2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground fennel seeds

1 teaspoon No. 1 curing salt

4 tablespoons kosher salt

2 teaspoons sugar

1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed

1/3 cup lactic-acid starter culture.

1. Rinse salt off the sausage casing. Soak in ice water for at least 1 hour.

2. Combine meat and fat. Run the mixture through a meat grinder into a large bowl, using the finest setting. Add all ingredients, along with one cup of ice water. Knead vigorously until mixture is the consistency of bread dough (about 8 minutes).

3. Rinse casing one last time. Choose the narrowest gauge tube of your sausage press. Splash the tube with ice water, then pull the casing over it. Transfer the mixture, about two fistfuls at a time, to the sausage press and then pump the meat into the casing, splashing more water on the tubing as needed to stop the casing from tearing.

Blogroll

rescue your soggy iPhone
I fill a ziplock with basmati; for good measure, add a cup of premium sushi (somehow short grain seems more absorbent). I pack the ziplock in my checked suitcase and fly off to France.

blogs and sites worth checking out

Manny Howard on The Colbert Report
in which Manny Howard, ably aided (guided really) by Stephen Colbert (and the good people at The Colbert Reprt) attempt to sell many copies of “My Empire of Dirt”

opinionbrooklyn
Robey Newsom started opinionbrooklyn because “Brad said I should start writing a blog but that I wouldn’t. He also called me smart and opinionated. He’s only half right. I’m sure there have been stupider reasons for starting a blog but probably not many.

rescue your soggy iPhone
I fill a ziplock with basmati; for good measure, add a cup of premium sushi (somehow short grain seems more absorbent). I pack the ziplock in my checked suitcase and fly off to France.

MEoD on The Main Course on Heritage Radio Network
on The Main Course, Patrick & Katy are joined by Angela Miller, Manny Howard & Ron Silver. Angela & Manny talk about their farming discoveries, and Ron discusses how Bubby’s came to be and what he thinks of local ingredients.

clips

“I’d Probably Slug Jesus”
This American Life: (Manny Howard talks with Paul Tough about why he loved fighting, in bars, on the street, and about how hard it is to quit.), This American Life, March 27, 1998

“Why We Split”
New York Times Magazine special issue on money (My wife and I shared a single savings account, and I blew through every nickel of it. The end was quick and clean), New York Times Magazine, October 15, 2000

MEoD on The Main Course on Heritage Radio Network
on The Main Course, Patrick & Katy are joined by Angela Miller, Manny Howard & Ron Silver. Angela & Manny talk about their farming discoveries, and Ron discusses how Bubby’s came to be and what he thinks of local ingredients.

commentary

cofactors blog, CatalystGroup
CoFactors, the research + development crucible for Catalyst Group Design. using their exceptionally broad view of the Web, this band of happy geniuses expand and codify their observations and experience, addressing design issues + culture.

MEoD on The Main Course on Heritage Radio Network
on The Main Course, Patrick & Katy are joined by Angela Miller, Manny Howard & Ron Silver. Angela & Manny talk about their farming discoveries, and Ron discusses how Bubby’s came to be and what he thinks of local ingredients.

opinionbrooklyn
Robey Newsom started opinionbrooklyn because “Brad said I should start writing a blog but that I wouldn’t. He also called me smart and opinionated. He’s only half right. I’m sure there have been stupider reasons for starting a blog but probably not many.

video of 1950s housewife tripping on LSD
Here’s some rare footage of an experimental LSD session that Don Lattin, Author of ‘Jesus Freaks’ and ‘The Harvard Psychedelic Club’ came across doing research for THPD, a group biography of British writer Aldous Huxley, philosopher Gerald Heard, and Bil

MEoD on The Main Course on Heritage Radio Network
on The Main Course, Patrick & Katy are joined by Angela Miller, Manny Howard & Ron Silver. Angela & Manny talk about their farming discoveries, and Ron discusses how Bubby’s came to be and what he thinks of local ingredients.

fishing

Bass: The Movie
This is the first comprehensive look behind the scenes of Bass: The Movie. The movie pits a conventional angler and a fly rod angler against one another in a Bass Eden. Who would win? Well, as it turned out, it evolved into a surprising team that left the

LSD Research

video of 1950s housewife tripping on LSD
Here’s some rare footage of an experimental LSD session that Don Lattin, Author of ‘Jesus Freaks’ and ‘The Harvard Psychedelic Club’ came across doing research for THPD, a group biography of British writer Aldous Huxley, philosopher Gerald Heard, and Bil

NPR "All Things Considered" Margot Adler visits The Farm
A lot of people talk about eating locally, but Manny Howard went further. He created a farm in his 20- by 40-foot Brooklyn backyard — with rabbits, chickens, and a host of vegetables — and was determined to spend a month eating only from his land.

“Why We Split”
New York Times Magazine special issue on money (My wife and I shared a single savings account, and I blew through every nickel of it. The end was quick and clean), New York Times Magazine, October 15, 2000

Manny's Radio Interviews

“I’d Probably Slug Jesus”
This American Life: (Manny Howard talks with Paul Tough about why he loved fighting, in bars, on the street, and about how hard it is to quit.), This American Life, March 27, 1998

MEoD on the Kojo Nnamdi Show
For some enthusiasts, backyard birds are an environmentally-sound way to create fertilizer, get rid of kitchen scraps, and provide fresh eggs. Others say urban chickens take the “locavore” movement too far, creating a neighborhood nuisance. We explore the

MEoD on The Main Course on Heritage Radio Network
on The Main Course, Patrick & Katy are joined by Angela Miller, Manny Howard & Ron Silver. Angela & Manny talk about their farming discoveries, and Ron discusses how Bubby’s came to be and what he thinks of local ingredients.

NPR "All Things Considered" Margot Adler visits The Farm
A lot of people talk about eating locally, but Manny Howard went further. He created a farm in his 20- by 40-foot Brooklyn backyard — with rabbits, chickens, and a host of vegetables — and was determined to spend a month eating only from his land.

Manny Howard on The Colbert Report
in which Manny Howard, ably aided (guided really) by Stephen Colbert (and the good people at The Colbert Reprt) attempt to sell many copies of “My Empire of Dirt”

MEoD on the Kojo Nnamdi Show
For some enthusiasts, backyard birds are an environmentally-sound way to create fertilizer, get rid of kitchen scraps, and provide fresh eggs. Others say urban chickens take the “locavore” movement too far, creating a neighborhood nuisance. We explore the

MEoD on The Main Course on Heritage Radio Network
on The Main Course, Patrick & Katy are joined by Angela Miller, Manny Howard & Ron Silver. Angela & Manny talk about their farming discoveries, and Ron discusses how Bubby’s came to be and what he thinks of local ingredients.

opinionbrooklyn
Robey Newsom started opinionbrooklyn because “Brad said I should start writing a blog but that I wouldn’t. He also called me smart and opinionated. He’s only half right. I’m sure there have been stupider reasons for starting a blog but probably not many.

Manny Howard on The Colbert Report
in which Manny Howard, ably aided (guided really) by Stephen Colbert (and the good people at The Colbert Reprt) attempt to sell many copies of “My Empire of Dirt”

MEoD on the Kojo Nnamdi Show
For some enthusiasts, backyard birds are an environmentally-sound way to create fertilizer, get rid of kitchen scraps, and provide fresh eggs. Others say urban chickens take the “locavore” movement too far, creating a neighborhood nuisance. We explore the

MEoD on The Main Course on Heritage Radio Network
on The Main Course, Patrick & Katy are joined by Angela Miller, Manny Howard & Ron Silver. Angela & Manny talk about their farming discoveries, and Ron discusses how Bubby’s came to be and what he thinks of local ingredients.

NPR "All Things Considered" Margot Adler visits The Farm
A lot of people talk about eating locally, but Manny Howard went further. He created a farm in his 20- by 40-foot Brooklyn backyard — with rabbits, chickens, and a host of vegetables — and was determined to spend a month eating only from his land.

rescue your soggy iPhone
I fill a ziplock with basmati; for good measure, add a cup of premium sushi (somehow short grain seems more absorbent). I pack the ziplock in my checked suitcase and fly off to France.

radio

“I’d Probably Slug Jesus”
This American Life: (Manny Howard talks with Paul Tough about why he loved fighting, in bars, on the street, and about how hard it is to quit.), This American Life, March 27, 1998

Recommended

“Why We Split”
New York Times Magazine special issue on money (My wife and I shared a single savings account, and I blew through every nickel of it. The end was quick and clean), New York Times Magazine, October 15, 2000

Bass: The Movie
This is the first comprehensive look behind the scenes of Bass: The Movie. The movie pits a conventional angler and a fly rod angler against one another in a Bass Eden. Who would win? Well, as it turned out, it evolved into a surprising team that left the

cofactors blog, CatalystGroup
CoFactors, the research + development crucible for Catalyst Group Design. using their exceptionally broad view of the Web, this band of happy geniuses expand and codify their observations and experience, addressing design issues + culture.

Effect Measure
Effect Measure is a forum for progressive public health discussion and argument as well as a source of public health information from around the web that interests the editors of scienceblogs.com

MEoD on the Kojo Nnamdi Show
For some enthusiasts, backyard birds are an environmentally-sound way to create fertilizer, get rid of kitchen scraps, and provide fresh eggs. Others say urban chickens take the “locavore” movement too far, creating a neighborhood nuisance. We explore the

MEoD on The Main Course on Heritage Radio Network
on The Main Course, Patrick & Katy are joined by Angela Miller, Manny Howard & Ron Silver. Angela & Manny talk about their farming discoveries, and Ron discusses how Bubby’s came to be and what he thinks of local ingredients.

rescue your soggy iPhone
I fill a ziplock with basmati; for good measure, add a cup of premium sushi (somehow short grain seems more absorbent). I pack the ziplock in my checked suitcase and fly off to France.

the complex economics of urban chicken farming
As a backyard chicken trend sweeps the country, hatcheries that supply baby chicks say they can barely keep up with demand. Do-it-yourself coops have popped up in places as disparate as Brooklyn, suburban Chicago and the rural West.

The Sandbox (Slate)
The Sandbox is Slate’s command-wide milblog, featuring comments, anecdotes, and observations from service members currently deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. This is GWOT-lit’s forward position, offering those in-country a chance to share their experience

video of 1950s housewife tripping on LSD
Here’s some rare footage of an experimental LSD session that Don Lattin, Author of ‘Jesus Freaks’ and ‘The Harvard Psychedelic Club’ came across doing research for THPD, a group biography of British writer Aldous Huxley, philosopher Gerald Heard, and Bil

Manny Howard on The Colbert Report
in which Manny Howard, ably aided (guided really) by Stephen Colbert (and the good people at The Colbert Reprt) attempt to sell many copies of “My Empire of Dirt”

NPR "All Things Considered" Margot Adler visits The Farm
A lot of people talk about eating locally, but Manny Howard went further. He created a farm in his 20- by 40-foot Brooklyn backyard — with rabbits, chickens, and a host of vegetables — and was determined to spend a month eating only from his land.

survival blog
The Daily Web Log for Prepared Individuals Living in Uncertain Times.

the complex economics of urban chicken farming
As a backyard chicken trend sweeps the country, hatcheries that supply baby chicks say they can barely keep up with demand. Do-it-yourself coops have popped up in places as disparate as Brooklyn, suburban Chicago and the rural West.

spouses

“Why We Split”
New York Times Magazine special issue on money (My wife and I shared a single savings account, and I blew through every nickel of it. The end was quick and clean), New York Times Magazine, October 15, 2000

MEoD on The Main Course on Heritage Radio Network
on The Main Course, Patrick & Katy are joined by Angela Miller, Manny Howard & Ron Silver. Angela & Manny talk about their farming discoveries, and Ron discusses how Bubby’s came to be and what he thinks of local ingredients.

Stupid Parent Trick
Yes we did take our brand new baby and 70lb dog on month long drive across the country.

video of 1950s housewife tripping on LSD
Here’s some rare footage of an experimental LSD session that Don Lattin, Author of ‘Jesus Freaks’ and ‘The Harvard Psychedelic Club’ came across doing research for THPD, a group biography of British writer Aldous Huxley, philosopher Gerald Heard, and Bil

Stuff I Love

Bass: The Movie
This is the first comprehensive look behind the scenes of Bass: The Movie. The movie pits a conventional angler and a fly rod angler against one another in a Bass Eden. Who would win? Well, as it turned out, it evolved into a surprising team that left the

rescue your soggy iPhone
I fill a ziplock with basmati; for good measure, add a cup of premium sushi (somehow short grain seems more absorbent). I pack the ziplock in my checked suitcase and fly off to France.

survival blog
The Daily Web Log for Prepared Individuals Living in Uncertain Times.

the selvedge yard
The Selvedge Yard is about all the things that interest me– a menswear product, presentation & branding guy with a passion for people, places things & ideas of enduring heritage, quality, authenticity & character. But I’m not all old scho

video of 1950s housewife tripping on LSD
Here’s some rare footage of an experimental LSD session that Don Lattin, Author of ‘Jesus Freaks’ and ‘The Harvard Psychedelic Club’ came across doing research for THPD, a group biography of British writer Aldous Huxley, philosopher Gerald Heard, and Bil

cofactors blog, CatalystGroup
CoFactors, the research + development crucible for Catalyst Group Design. using their exceptionally broad view of the Web, this band of happy geniuses expand and codify their observations and experience, addressing design issues + culture.

rescue your soggy iPhone
I fill a ziplock with basmati; for good measure, add a cup of premium sushi (somehow short grain seems more absorbent). I pack the ziplock in my checked suitcase and fly off to France.

the complex economics of urban chicken farming
As a backyard chicken trend sweeps the country, hatcheries that supply baby chicks say they can barely keep up with demand. Do-it-yourself coops have popped up in places as disparate as Brooklyn, suburban Chicago and the rural West.

the selvedge yard
The Selvedge Yard is about all the things that interest me– a menswear product, presentation & branding guy with a passion for people, places things & ideas of enduring heritage, quality, authenticity & character. But I’m not all old scho

video of 1950s housewife tripping on LSD
Here’s some rare footage of an experimental LSD session that Don Lattin, Author of ‘Jesus Freaks’ and ‘The Harvard Psychedelic Club’ came across doing research for THPD, a group biography of British writer Aldous Huxley, philosopher Gerald Heard, and Bil

The Sandbox (Slate)
The Sandbox is Slate’s command-wide milblog, featuring comments, anecdotes, and observations from service members currently deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. This is GWOT-lit’s forward position, offering those in-country a chance to share their experience

Manny Howard on The Colbert Report
in which Manny Howard, ably aided (guided really) by Stephen Colbert (and the good people at The Colbert Reprt) attempt to sell many copies of “My Empire of Dirt”

MEoD on The Main Course on Heritage Radio Network
on The Main Course, Patrick & Katy are joined by Angela Miller, Manny Howard & Ron Silver. Angela & Manny talk about their farming discoveries, and Ron discusses how Bubby’s came to be and what he thinks of local ingredients.

NPR "All Things Considered" Margot Adler visits The Farm
A lot of people talk about eating locally, but Manny Howard went further. He created a farm in his 20- by 40-foot Brooklyn backyard — with rabbits, chickens, and a host of vegetables — and was determined to spend a month eating only from his land.

survival blog
The Daily Web Log for Prepared Individuals Living in Uncertain Times.

the complex economics of urban chicken farming
As a backyard chicken trend sweeps the country, hatcheries that supply baby chicks say they can barely keep up with demand. Do-it-yourself coops have popped up in places as disparate as Brooklyn, suburban Chicago and the rural West.

video

Bass: The Movie
This is the first comprehensive look behind the scenes of Bass: The Movie. The movie pits a conventional angler and a fly rod angler against one another in a Bass Eden. Who would win? Well, as it turned out, it evolved into a surprising team that left the

The Mad Farmer
In the depths of his agrarian madness, Manny is interviewed on The Farm

video of 1950s housewife tripping on LSD
Here’s some rare footage of an experimental LSD session that Don Lattin, Author of ‘Jesus Freaks’ and ‘The Harvard Psychedelic Club’ came across doing research for THPD, a group biography of British writer Aldous Huxley, philosopher Gerald Heard, and Bil

video of 1950s housewife tripping on LSD
Here’s some rare footage of an experimental LSD session that Don Lattin, Author of ‘Jesus Freaks’ and ‘The Harvard Psychedelic Club’ came across doing research for THPD, a group biography of British writer Aldous Huxley, philosopher Gerald Heard, and Bil

MEoD on the Kojo Nnamdi Show
For some enthusiasts, backyard birds are an environmentally-sound way to create fertilizer, get rid of kitchen scraps, and provide fresh eggs. Others say urban chickens take the “locavore” movement too far, creating a neighborhood nuisance. We explore the

MEoD on The Main Course on Heritage Radio Network
on The Main Course, Patrick & Katy are joined by Angela Miller, Manny Howard & Ron Silver. Angela & Manny talk about their farming discoveries, and Ron discusses how Bubby’s came to be and what he thinks of local ingredients.

the complex economics of urban chicken farming
As a backyard chicken trend sweeps the country, hatcheries that supply baby chicks say they can barely keep up with demand. Do-it-yourself coops have popped up in places as disparate as Brooklyn, suburban Chicago and the rural West.